reading: swordspoint

[sword_logic]

swordspoint is a fantasy novel by ellen kushner, published in 1987. richard st vier is a swordsman in a country where swordsmen are hired by lords to fight in their name as a blend of mercenary, assassin, and showman; he ends up embroiled in a complex web of political maneuvering against his will.

this book felt unusual for the wider fantasy genre in that it's neither "historical" nor is there any magic; i would compare it to the space opera subgenre of sci-fi. all in all, it was a pretty interesting ~queer history~ read.

first and foremost, i was floored by the way this novel included multiple MLM characters navigating relationships with men and women, and a society without homophobia – only once does a character say something disparaging, and it's more to the tune of the person in question being objectionable as a whole. unfortunately, there were no WLW; i'm not sure if the sequels include WLW, but this book didn't.

i'm having a hard time gathering my thoughts about this book. i enjoyed it — it was so good to read such a casual take on queerness, and the book was unrelenting in its depiction of richness and upper class as utterly, unambiguously reprehensible. this review summed up my thoughts on the rich-and-poor dichotomy:

In Swordspoint we always move between decadent plotting nobles and slum-dwelling killers. There’s no in-between. There’s no in-between emotionally either; this alternates between people coolly plotting while sipping chocolate and people passionately engaged. What makes it so unusual as a fantasy novel is that the world is not at stake. Not even the kingdom is at stake. In the plotting of the nobles, none of it really matters. The important story is the personal small-scale one about the swordsman Richard St Vier and his love for the badly-behaved Alec.

the people from the lower city are happy to kill and steal, but they draw lines, and they know what they are. the people from the upper city pretend at honor and loyalty and righteousness while hiring swordsmen to kill or distract from murder. like the review said, there is literally no in-between. at one point the novel goes from richard casually killing someone who threatened alec to the nobles discussing politics. it's not a bad thing, but it did throw me off the whole way through. the contrast was incredibly stark, and it worked.

the biggest complaint i have about this book is that the ending..... fell flat, a bit. i think if there'd been a bit more room to explore everyone's reactions to the Final Political Twist, everything would have felt more settled and finalized. but, well, eh. it was a satisfying enough ending.

weird comparison, but the politics in swordspoint reminded me a lot of the covenant politics (specifically, truth's machinations) in contact harvest. there's so much in contact harvest that's partly the result of manipulation, partly coincidence, wholly convoluted, and swordspoint feels much the same. everyone is trying to use richard to stab everyone else in the back, and richard really just wants to take an interesting challenge and get paid.

anyways, it was a good read, but a weird book, and it scratched my itch for some Weird Fantasy. i've got lynn flewelling's luck in the shadows coming to me... eventually? via ILL, so hopefully that'll be an interesting read too. in the meantime, i've got several GNs and jacqueline carey's santa olivia on the docket.